Review: Fire Season by Hollye Dexter {Truth or Dare Blog Tour}

Hollye Dexter and her husband Troy woke one night to find their house ablaze. To escape the fire, they had to jump from their second-story window with their toddler son—and then watch their house and home-based businesses burn to the ground. Over the next two years, the family went bankrupt, lost their cars and another home, and got dropped by their best friends. As the outer layers of her life were stripped away, Dexter began to unravel emotionally; but then she found herself on the brink of losing her marriage, and she realized that if she was going to save her family, she would have to pull herself back together somehow.

As she fought to reassemble the pieces of the life she’d had, Dexter discovered that a shattered heart has the ability to regenerate in a mighty way; that even in the midst of disaster, you can find your place; and that when everything you identify with is gone, you are free to discover who you really are. Poignant and inspiring, Fire Season is a story for anyone who has ever lost hope—and found it again.

Oh my sweet goodness gracious all I want to do after finishing FIRE SEASON is hug Hollye. And maybe cry a little. And tell her that she is a much bigger person than I probably will ever be. And tell Hollye how much I admire her and her family. This memoir did something to me. It felt *chuckles and shakes head* This book, y’all it felt like drowning. Or how I imagine I think drowning to feel. I felt like my head would get pushed toward the surface of the water, only to get shoved under again: nails scratching at the throat, fighting to shove oxygen into the lungs, eyes bulging and watering and lungs burning like they were set on fire. It felt like falling and getting up. Actually, it felt like getting pushed to the pavement and standing up. FIRE SEASON sets it’s course on a normal day and a feeling. A feeling like things were going to change. Then it literally all comes down in flames. Following the events and the emotions after the fire consumed their house and thus changing the way the Dexter family lived, FIRE SEASON pulls at the human heart strings in a way that made me feel numb. Dexter puts her family dynamics, the good and the bad and the ugly and the heartbreaking, on display for the world to read and I feel grateful. She makes you re-evaluate your life and shows you what you have got to be grateful for. This novel feels human. Gorgeously composed, terrifyingly raw and real, I couldn’t put it down. Oh my. That sounds odd. But, really. I couldn’t. I wanted the drunk in the beginning to be right about them lasting. I wanted a happy (or at least not quite as tragic) ending. Hope, hurt and healing, this memoir is one I would highly recommend.

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